Avasarala wrestled with her ruthless edge for five seasons, ultimately working to set aside ego and build a new world. Both bristle at perceived injustice to their factions and care just a bit more about power than they necessarily do about the good of their people. The pair were previously two complicated portraits of leaders, each portrayed by skilled actors. No one suffers from Default Characterization more than Avasarala and Inaros, two sides of the same complex coin. Those decisions never feel out of character, but there’s little time for foundation and even less of the usual deliberation for individual choices. Lazy backroom sex scenes for Filip or a blink-and-you’d-miss-it apology from Holden stand in for deeper exploration of motivation. But too often the show’s trademark methodical world and character building gets dropped in favor of plot machinations. In “Strange Dogs,” the first episode of the season, we see Naomi still dealing with not only guilt but PTSD after barely surviving her escape from Marco in season 5. Despite the extratextual reasons for Alex’s death last season, The Expanse writers know their characters should and would mourn his passing.

There are moments for depth scattered throughout the six hours. The main problem is that it doesn’t have the time for the pensive due diligence that classic films like Paths of Glory or All Quiet on the Western Front (and Expanse seasons in the past) excelled at it’s a war movie that is uninterested in why any of these factions are at war, simply because it doesn’t have any time to expand on those ideas. Season 6 operates as a war story, putting characters into survival mode and propulsively moving from one battle to the next. And unfortunately The Expanse can’t help but buckle a bit under the pressure there’s no way around the fact that viewers deserved a bit more of the space-faring series.

The dangling plot leaves a lot for a final single season to accomplish, slim-cut or no. As the new season kicks off, the Rocinante crew find themselves straining against threats from all sides.

forces, led by Secretary General Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo). The end of season 5 saw the whole universe thrown into war, and Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) uniting the Belter communities against Earth and the U.N. It’s hard to believe anyone, Amazon executives included, thought a six-episode final season was enough to wrap up The Expanse.

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